On a sultry summer’s night, men crowd into a tent on the edge of Lahore’s red light district. They silently eyeball the slinking female figure on stage before them. She flirts, pouts and bats an eyelid, rolling her hips and running a suggestive finger across the lips.
But beneath the tottering heels, smeared mascara and sequinned shalwar kameez the curvaceous woman is, biologically speaking, a man.
She is a Hijra, part of south Asia’s ancient and secretive community of transsexuals, hermaphrodites and eunuchs. Once influential in the Moghul empire’s courts — serving royalty or commanding legions of soldiers — the ”third sex” now live in the shadows of Pakistani society, as dancers, beggars or sex workers.
The enigmatic group emerges during the summer-fair season. Some dance at mafia-run fairgrounds with blaring Punjabi music and illicit gambling dens. Others work the ”wall of death”, whirling around as a motorbike roars around them and men shower them with money.
Now they are faced with a very real prospect of death.
Although HIV levels in Pakistan are low — an estimated 100 000 of its 150 million people are infected, compared with about five million in neighbouring India — experts warn that Hijra are part of a small but high-risk group that could trigger an ”explosive” rise in the disease.
A new survey by Family Health International (FHI) has uncovered a concentrated epidemic among drug addicts, one quarter of whom tested HIV-positive in Karachi.
Just 2% of Hijra were infected. But the prevalence of sexually transmitted disease — about 60% have syphilis — woeful public heath systems and ignorance about Aids ”give warning of serious HIV epidemic potential in Pakistan”, claims the study.
Interactions between high-risk groups compound the danger. Addicts frequently buy sex from female sex workers and Hijra, who in turn sleep with truckers and married men. ”The Hijra infection rate is low for now, but the risk is high,” said Naseer Nizamani of FHI. ”And it could easily spread into the general population.”
Ambiguous attitudes to the Hijra complicate the struggle.
Many Pakistanis believe the Hijra possess supernatural powers. Parents pay them to bless their newborn sons — fearing they may otherwise be cursed — or hire them as wedding dancers. But they are also scorned, taunted by homophobes and victimised — and sometimes raped — by police.
”Our parents disown us, our friends desert us and it is impossible to find a partner for life,” mourned Madame Henna, a cigarette-twirling Hijra at a brothel in the Hira Mundi red light district.
The close-knit community has its own language, laws and leaders. Some Hijras have links with organised crime.
Hijras, who first emerged in 12th century Muslim courts, remain loyal to Islam and worship at dedicated Hijra shrines. They have a tradition of burying their dead secretly, under cover of darkness.
But secrecy carries a cost. FHI found that more than 40% of Hijra have never heard of HIV and only 9% use condoms. ”Nobody wants to use one,” said Gori Shermi, a 30-year-old Hijra peer educator.
Shermi works for the Aids Prevention Association of Pakistan, one of a handful of small NGOs working with Hijra. Volunteer workers build links by offering gifts, said its director, Muhammad Hanif. ”Only then they will listen to us,” he said.
Stigmatisation started under the British Raj, which passed the first laws against ”sodomites”. Today the practice of forced castration has faded and most Hijra are transsexuals. Many are sponsored by ”husbands” — married men leading double lives torn between family and a homosexual relationship.
In India Hijra have starred in Bollywood films and contested local council elections. But mullahs and other powerful conservatives hold sway in Pakistan.
Inside the dancing tent the thrusting Hijra paused her act as the wail of a mullah started from a nearby mosque.
”This will be the last song for now,” announced a crackling voice on a loudspeaker. ”Then we will take a break for evening prayer.” – Guardian Unlimited Â